Electromuscular Dynamics of Patient During Hippotherapy

Hippotherapy is a treatment modality (TM) performed by qualified and trained physio/occupationaltherapists to help patients with mental or neuromusculoskeletal (NMS) disorders as well as otherdysfunctions [1]. This equine-assisted intervention is based on the hypothesis that the horse provides a 3Dmovement similar to that experienced by neuromuscular system during human walk [1]. Currentsubjective practices and procedures could be greatly enhanced by an objective approach to sessionprograms [2]. This study proposed a neuromusculoskeletal (NMS) modeling approach, which has theability to predict personal kinematics as well as neuromuscular reflexive responses to equine movements.Empirical test shows acceptable agreement between acquired data (from accelerometers andelectromyography) and predicted simulation results.